Question:
According to Islam, if anyone commits sin in this world and be persistent in his sin, the lord shall take back his gifts from him like the people of “Sabaa”, but there are secular countries or countries in which they openly kill people like Turkey, Israel or USA, which have a good fortune and there is nothing like famine, drought or similar things in these countries. Why?
Answer:
Who says they have no shortage and they are not facing the biggest and most deadly disasters?
This belief is not particular for Islam, and it has always been the lord’s way. Undistorted part of holy books, proclaim the same. Explicit meaning of some verses of Quran implies so and this is the conclusion of good reasoning that anyone who wastes a gift shall be deprived from it.
The lord emphasizes in the holy Quran:
“And when your Lord proclaimed,” If you are grateful, I will surely enhance you [in blessing], but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is indeed severe”
(The Holy Quran (14-7)
This practice of God is governing, binding and obvious even in physical rules of the world. If someone is careful about his health, his life shall be extended and he shall seldom suffers from illness, but anyone who puts his hand on fire, his hand will be burnt and if he insists his hand will turn to ashes.
Anyone who appreciate the blessings like knowledge, financial power, credit, parents, his mate and children, his good friends and etc., will benefit from them and whoever wastes these blessings should suffer the consequences.
But it is very important that we understand the meaning of “blessing”. What is “gratitude” and how we may become “grateful”? What is the meaning of “Torment”? What is it in this world and what form it shall take in the next world?
If we take blessing as earthly gifts, when we are praying in the Surat of “Fataha” in our prayers as we say:
“Guide us to the right path, the path of those to whom You have granted blessings,”
What is the meaning of this? Are we praying the lord to guide us to the path of American and European and Japanese? So maybe the criminal army of Yazid, Omar Saad and Shimr had blessing and Imam Hussain (Pbuh) was suffering torment because they had earthly powers and opportunities and Imam Hussain did not!
None of the blessings of the Lord, should be wasted, but the main blessing is the gift of guardianship (Vilayah) and blessed people are the guardians and their followers, because it is the clear meaning of the Quran:
“Whoever obeys Allah and the prophet, they are with those whom Allah has blessed, including the prophets and the truthful, the martyrs and the righteous, and excellent companions are they”
(The holy Quran (4-69)
It should be noted about the phrase “gratitude” that it means proper use of the gifts. Gratitude is firstly in your heart and mind, and then it will come to your words. That’s why the companionship of the blessed people in this verse is equalized with following God and his prophet (Pbuh).
Analogous to this definition of blessing and gratitude we can define the meaning of torment. If earthly gifts are not true blessings, so the torment does not mean deprivation of earthly gifts.
The greatest loss:
Loss (Khusran) means that we totally lose the principle of our capital and its interest, so any man is naturally in loss, because he is losing his short term capital of this life and permanent capital of next life; except the people who are faithful and perform good deeds:
In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful
By the time; the human being is doomed to suffer loss; except the righteously striving believers who exhort each other to truthful purposes and to patience.
(The holy Quran (103:1-3)
But the loss and profit is relative and it has different levels. Both ascension and descension have different levels. But among the descenders, which one is proclaimed by the lord as the greatest losers? Those who are suffering from famine and drought? The lord says:
Say: Shall We inform you who will be the greatest losers by their works?
Those whose effort goeth astray in the life of the world, and yet they reckon that they do good work.
(The holy Quran (18:103-104)
Two words are used in this verse, effort (Saey) and work (Sonee) which together they mean efforts to build and construct. People try to build integrity and welfare for themselves in this world and the next and the lord says that the greatest losers are those that everything they built and worked are wasted but they think that they have done a good and constructive effort which shall lead to happiness and welfare.
The most severe earthly torment
According to this, the most severe earthly torment is not famine or drought, but it is gradual torment (level by level according to inclination from the right path). While the men doing their efforts in vain they reckon that they are doing good deeds and gradually they descend level by level to their doom and they are not aware because they have no understanding about the world and the consequences and results of their deeds and they think that they are ascending level by level in the path of happiness:
And those who denied our evidences, we will lead them gradually from where/ when they do not know.
(The holy Quran (7:182)
Natural disasters – trial and torment:
Natural disasters like earthquake, flood, volcano, drought and etc. are not negative by their own but they are positive and they are required for natural life cycle of the earth, but when someone is tried by them they will become a trail (Bala) – “Bala” means a trial accompanied by harshness and there is no reason for any trial to be a torment. Many trials are blessing for faithful people.
Difference kinds of events in different places of the world:
Any individual or society which faces a problem thinks that this is the only form of disaster and wishes to be in place of people who are not suffering from the same. like people in barren zones which wish to be in a rainy and green land and thinks with themselves, if they commit sins and crimes, so why …?
But every land has its own natural disasters. There is drought in one point, Tsunami in one point, in some other place flood cover a vast portion of the land under water and in another place hurricane demolishes the cities. For example the year of 2012 has been the most terrible year in USA for its destructive hurricanes. But the deadliest and worst torment is gradual suffering from the consequences of blasphemy, oppression and crime which USA, Europe and other blasphemers and oppressors are facing it in every aspect and there are many facts about the growth of poverty, crime, rape, insecurity, hopelessness, suicide, oppression, infanticide, rape by first degree relatives in these countries which is reported and published by themselves.